Bayer shares slip as drugs giant falls to €9.5bn loss
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German pharmaceutical giant Bayer saw its shares slip 3.6 per cent this morning after the firm reported a €9.5bn (£8.6bn) loss in the second quarter.
The loss stemmed from a $10.9bn settlement of US lawsuits which claimed that its weedkiller product Roundup caused cancer.
As of July, lawsuits from approximately 56,200 plaintiffs claiming to have been exposed to the product, which is manufactured by Bayer’s subsidiary Monsanto, had been served upon Monsanto in the United States.
Plaintiffs alleged personal injuries resulting from exposure to those products, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma, and are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
In June Monsanto reached an agreement with plaintiffs, without admission of liability, to settle most of the current Roundup litigation, involving approximately 75 per cent of the total approximately 125,000 known filed and unfiled claims.
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The settlement capped a tough quarter for Bayer, in which sales declined by 2.5 per cent to €10.05bn, led by falls in consumer health and pharmaceuticals.
The company said that the decline in pharma sales was mainly down to a combination of volume-based procurement policy in China and the ongoing pandemic.
However, discounting the settlement earnings rose by 5.6 per cent to €2.9bn, led by growth in Bayer’s crop science division.
Loss per share was €9.72 compared to a profit of €0.41 the year before.
For the financial year, the firm said it had reduced its guidance and was now targeting sales of €43-44bn, rather than €44-45bn as previously forecast.
It also reduced its earnings guidance to €12.1bn, down from €12.3-12.6bn as anticipated before.